The Lion King In The Human World Part 3

To Ask Or Not To Ask, SPIT IT OUT ALREADY!

(I'm back! Tech issues have ruled my life for a long time, but I defeated them and I'll update double today to make up for it. Enjoy!)

KIARA

Kovu was helping me with homework, more like he was doing my homework and explaining it to me as he went. I don't mean for him to do that, but he did it anyway. That's what happens when you date America's Smartest Kid, even though he's an adult now and is really the world's smartest. 

"And that is your chemistry homework," Kovu said, "That took longer than I thought." 

"It took fifteen minutes," I told him, "Seven minutes longer than it usually takes you, what's with that?"

Kovu bit his lower lip. He was hiding something. "Just contemplating a highly serious state of mind. One that could change the course of my life forever."

"If you're working on a cure for cancer," I said, "I wouldn't be surprised. It seems like something you'd do."

Kovu shrugged his shoulders. "I can see that being a possible thing I might do, but really Kiara, I'm interested in law. You should know that by now as we have known each other. . ."

"For five years." I finished.

"Four years, ten months, eleven days, five hours, forty-eight minutes, and seven seconds," Kovu said, "About and not counting daylight savings, of course." I have no idea how he always keeps such perfect records of time and I doubt I ever will.

KOVU

My heart is screaming at me, meaning my desires and not my actually heart which cannot speak a word, to ask Kiara to marry me. Cousin Simba gave me his blessing, so the hard part with the guy who scares me is over, all I have to do is ask Kiara. That honestly sounds even more scary.

Kiara put her homework away and went to dump the papers in her room. I pulled the ring box out of my drawer and tucked it my wheelchair pocket. I was doing this tonight, by the time I went to bed, Kiara would either be my future wife or have broken my heart. I hope the first one.

Kiara came back to my room. "Ready for date night?" she asked.

I had to smile, I do love her, even though my stomach is in knots, not literally, because of what I'm planning to do. "Indeed I am," I said, "Let's go."

At the restaurant, the waitress just had to recognize me and ask if the girl I was with was my girlfriend. I told her and the few other girls who asked that same question that she was and we were not braking up anytime soon. "That's so weird how you get so much attention from girls," Kiara said. 

I had to sigh. "They are not interested in me," I told her, "They only want to go out with me because I am famous, smart, which is the reason I'm famous, and rich. It is shameful really."

Kiara took a roll from the basket. "I get it," she said, "My gold digging friends who stole my credit card still try to patch things up with me."

"Perhaps you should consider that," I suggested.

Kiara looked at me as if I was out of my mind. "You remember that they stole my credit card, right?" she said, "Not only that, but they both dated Kion only for money and Tiffu even stole his credit card. Why he dated those girls in the first place is beyond me though."

"Tiffu was a rebound after that one girl moved away and Zuri was a rebound after Tiffu," I told her, "It seems as though Kion has not had the best luck with dating."

"Neither has Nuka," Kiara said. That was true, Nuka's relationships never lasted long. Usually, the women he asks out splash coffee in his face. "I like this Rani girl though," Kiara said, "I hope they stick together and that Kion stops keeping secrets from her. Their relationship is like the one he had with that artist girl. What was her name?"

"Jasiri," I said, "She was nice."

"Wonder what happened to her," Kiara said, "Anyway, we're not here to talk about our brothers' love lives. We're here to spend time together as boyfriend and girlfriend, also adopted second cousins." I almost corrected her, but she was actually right. We are second cousins by adoption. "Can't correct me now!" Kiara said happily.

"Do I really correct you a lot?" I asked.

Kiara nodded. "A lot, but your I.Q. is off the charts and I'm just above average so I don't mind. I learn something new every day with you Kovu. Like how there's no law against marrying your cousin, or that Hallelujah is the one word that's the same in every language."

I had to force a smile. I hadn't noticed my corrections towards her. Do I really do that a lot? Will Kiara ever get sick of it? I know I made her feel dumb in the past, but that was accidental and I was correcting her willingly. Would she want to marry someone who corrects her all the time? Maybe I should stop? Scratch that out, I will stop.

After the restaurant, where Kiara made three grammatical errors while speaking and I bit my tongue those three times, Kiara pushed me around her collage campus grounds. I hadn't been here since my collage days when I was the youngest on campus and annoyed my teachers to no end. Kiara made more errors, grammatical, mathematical, historical, and more. I had to literally bite down on my tongue to keep from correcting her.

"Kovu," Kiara said, "Why are you so quiet? Is something wrong? Where are your pills?" She reached into my wheelchair pocket before I could say something. She pulled out the ring box and opened it. 

"What's this?" she asked, "Why does it look like an engagement ring? Why do you has this?"

HAS this? Did she just say HAS this? Okay, I can't resist. "Have," I said, "I really tried correcting you less, but then you say things like that and I can't hold it back. Why would you want to marry someone who corrects you so much?" I slapped my hands over my mouth, horrified at what I had just said.

"Kovu," Kiara said, taking out the ring. She slid it on her left ring finger. "I'd love to marry you and I don't care if you correct me. I always saw your correcting me as a way of showing your love. You're not afraid to tell me when I'm wrong, you care for me."

I looked at her hand. "I'm sorry I couldn't ask for your hand the way a normal guy would have, getting down on one knee and all. I get down on one knee and I need help both balancing and getting back up again."

Kiara knelt down so we were eye to eye. "Don't care," she said, "You wouldn't be normal if you could walk anyway. Twice the I.Q. of an average genius remember, brain boy?" I reached out and held my Kiara, my future wife. 

Nuka's going to be so jealous.